Vipareeta Raja Yoga

Definition

Vipareeta Raja Yoga is the "reversed" or "inverse" royal combination (raja yoga) that forms when the lords of the dusthanas — the 6th, 8th, and 12th houses, the so-called Trik sthanas — sit in dusthana houses or trade places among themselves rather than occupy their own houses. Though built from the houses of disease, death, and loss, it is held to produce the opposite: success, rise in status, and gain. Its three classic sub-forms are Harsha (6th lord in the 6th), Sarala (8th lord in the 8th), and Vimala (12th lord in the 12th).

In Tradition

Across the classical and modern Jyotish literature this combination is read as a paradox: the lords of the difficult houses, when confined to difficult houses, turn their usually harmful effect around and instead bring rise, prosperity, and unexpected fortune — often after an early struggle, or through the misfortune of others. Several authors caution that you should not take it at face value as a negative combination.

In Practice

A jyotishi (Vedic astrologer) looks at where the dusthana lords sit to spot the yoga and to time its results. Raman lays out the trio Harsha, Sarala, and Vimala (Nos.109-111) but cautions, citing Parasara and Lomasa, that a difficult lordship's sting is only softened, not erased. The Uttara Kalamrita asks that the dusthana lords be tied to each other — by conjunction, aspect, or exchange — and not tied to other planets; Levacy and Narasimha Rao add that for full effect the lord should sit alone in the other dusthana, ideally with all three together. Rath extends the rule to the 3rd house and notes the reversal of fortune unfolds during the dasa (planetary period) of the planets involved; Sutton observes that what the success looks like shifts with the sign and planet — knowledge through Jupiter, hard work through Saturn. It is read in mundane (world-event) charts as well as birth charts.

Historical Origin

The combination is attested in the classical Uttara Kalamrita (Ch.IV, in Sastri's translation), where it is a king-making yoga, and is developed further by modern authors including Raman (Three Hundred Important Combinations; How to Judge a Horoscope; Notable Horoscopes), Levacy, Rath, Charak, Sutton, deFouw & Svoboda, Narasimha Rao, and Mehta & Rao in a mundane context.

Further Reading

• Kalidasa, Uttara Kalamrita, Ch.IV
• B.V. Raman, Three Hundred Important Combinations, Nos.109-111
• William R. Levacy, Beneath a Vedic Sky, Ch.8
• Rath, Crux of Vedic Astrology
• K.S. Charak, Elements of Vedic Astrology, Ch.XX-XXII
• Komilla Sutton, The Essentials of Vedic Astrology, Ari Bhava - The Sixth House
• B.V. Raman & Gayatri Devi Vasudev, How to Judge a Horoscope, Volume Two, "Concerning the Tenth House"
• deFouw & Svoboda, Light on Life, Ch.10 Graha Yogas
• M.S. Mehta & A. Radhika Rao, Time Tested Techniques of Mundane Astrology, Ch.XXIV
• Raman, Notable Horoscopes, Index of Technical Terms
• Narasimha Rao, Vedic Astrology: An Integrated Approach, Ch.11.7.1